1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice reference system and a voice recognition navigation apparatus using the voice reference system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are car navigation apparatuses (hereafter referred to as navigation apparatuses) that display the current position of the vehicle, display a map over a wide area or in detail and provide guidance to the driver along the traveling direction over the remaining distance to the destination in the prior art. There are also voice recognition navigation apparatuses in the prior art having a function of enabling the driver engaged in driving to issue operating instructions by voice to improve driver safety (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-292255, for instance).
FIGS. 11A˜11D illustrate the concept of voice recognition dictionaries (hereafter simply referred to as dictionaries) used in a navigation apparatus in the prior art to display a desired ski resort in a map through voice instructions.
When the power to the navigation apparatus is turned on, the basic dictionary shown in FIG. 11A is opened in the memory. In the basic dictionary, instruction phrases such as “bird's eye view display,” “enlarge,” “reduce” and “ski resorts” are stored as recognition words. If the user says (vocalizes) “ski resorts” to specify a facility category, voice recognition processing is performed on all the recognition words in the basic dictionary. When “ski resorts” is recognized as the result of the voice recognition processing, a ski resort prefecture name dictionary, which contains prefecture names where ski resorts are present as recognition words is opened in memory, as shown in FIG. 11B.
Then, if the user says “ABCD Prefecture,” for instance, to specify the prefecture where the desired ski resort is present, voice recognition processing is performed on all the recognition words in the prefecture name dictionary. If “ABCD Prefecture” is recognized as the result of the voice recognition processing, an ABCD Prefecture ski resort name dictionary containing the names of ski resorts present in ABCD Prefecture as recognition words is opened in memory as shown in FIG. 11C. Next, the user says “B Ski Resort” to specify a ski resort, and in response, voice recognition processing is performed on all the recognition words in the ABCD Prefecture ski resort name dictionary. After “B Ski Resort” is recognized through the voice recognition processing, a map containing B Ski Resort is displayed on the screen of the navigation apparatus as shown in FIG. 11D.
In addition to ski resorts, there are various facility categories that need to be recognized by the voice recognition software program, such as theme parks and airports. Many of such facilities are located near prefectural borders. For instance, there is a ski resort located near the prefectural border of Gunma Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture, a theme park located near the prefectural border of Tokyo Prefecture and Chiba Prefecture and an airport located near the prefectural border of Osaka Prefecture and Hyogo Prefecture. In addition, in the case of a vast facility such as a golf course or a ski resort, the user may not be certain which prefecture the facility belongs to.
If the user inputs the wrong prefecture when specifying the prefecture where the facility is located in such a situation, the facility name dictionary in the wrong prefecture where the facility is not located is opened in memory and accessed. Thus, a problem occurs in that a successful recognition is not achieved no matter how many times the user subsequently says the accurate facility name.